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Context‐dependent latent inhibition in taste aversion learning
Author(s) -
ARCHER TREVOR,
MOHAMMED ABDUL K.,
JÄRBE TORBJÖRN U. C.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1986.tb01205.x
Subject(s) - saccharin , taste aversion , conditioning , latent inhibition , psychology , classical conditioning , bottle , stimulus (psychology) , taste , perception , context (archaeology) , preference test , audiology , communication , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , neuroscience , preference , endocrinology , medicine , mechanical engineering , engineering , economics , biology , microeconomics , paleontology , statistics , mathematics
The effects of taste stimulus preexposure, either in the presence or in the absence of a specific contextual cue consisting of a specific noise‐producing bottle, upon the conditioning and testing of conditioned taste aversions to the taste (saccharin) plus context (noisy‐bottle) compound stimulus were investigated. Four groups of rats were given preexposure trials (latent inhibition) to either: (1) novel saccharin in novel noisy bottles, (2) novel saccharin in familiar silent bottles, (3) familiar water in novel noisy bottles, (4) familiar water in familiar silent bottles, in six trials. During conditioning, saccharin was presented in the noisy bottles followed by lithium chloride for all the groups. At testing, saccharin was presented in the noisy bottles for both one‐bottle and two‐bottle tests of aversion. It was indicated that the conditioning decrement produced after both saccharin and noisy bottle preexposure was overwhelmingly greater than any produced after preexposure to the elements. These results, discussed in relation to current theories of latent inhibition and perceptual learning, further underline the overwhelming significance of exteroceptive contextual elements in conditioned taste aversions.